Herd MSL wins PRIA National Large Agency of the Year

Herd MSL exists to deliver great results and progress the careers of our team. Development of our team’s careers has been our central purpose and fundamental to our growth and achievements – among which are this week’s PRIA’s National Large Agency of the Year.

Our people are passionate about communications – they’ve trained extensively and committed their professional careers to delivering outstanding communications and have sought out an environment to do this.

The communication challenges our team face each day are vast, and include how to help organisations increase market share, engage and excite consumers, protect reputation, mitigate issues, stay ahead of competitors and deliver value (and demonstrate it). How they tackle these challenges is impressive – there’s technical excellence, experience and counsel which is core. However what’s most impressive is their curiosity, drive, energy and passion.

Outstanding communication has never been more important to business. In a year marked by rapid technological change, reputational scrutiny and political and economic uncertainty, organisations have sought communications counsel as the first step to navigate these challenges.

For agencies to be successful in the current environment, we think they need size, scale and specialisation. PR professionals used to be generalists – expected to tackle strategy, media and stakeholder relations, content creation and execution. Now the diversity of channels, the integration with creative, paid and social and disruption of traditional media has changed the way we think about our workforce.

The organisations we work with seek diverse skills – this means corporate affairs professionals for strategy, risk and reputation, creatives to drive ideas, skilled writers and creators to build content, dedicated publicists and social media specialists to earn a share of voice and analysts to provide insight.

This suits our team – who believe that building their careers requires access to outstanding brands, challenging work, the opportunity to grow their skills in diverse environments and the chance to work with senior, experienced communicators who commit to train and invest in their development.

Specialisation based on strengths – we believe people are at their best when they do what they love and what they’re great at. We encourage everyone to identify what that is and pursue it passionately.

Progression – this year we drove an agency wide initiative to interrogate what progression means to our team. The outcome is a drive by our leaders to ensure they know what our team want to achieve and create the opportunities and environment for them to achieve work they’ll be proud of.

Leaders to learn from – our team of 75 is led by award-winning consultants. We believe our leadership should be hands-on, both doing the work and dedicated to training our team. They have a track record – in technology, consumer, government, corporate affairs and creative – and know their future success depends on the quality of their investment in their team.

Diversity – in all forms drives creativity and unique ideas. Our industry leading parental leave policy introduced this year provides 16 weeks paid leave and many additional benefits to encourage parents to continue their careers with us as they build a family. A dedicated diversity champion supported by a clear and practical policy has inspired our leaders to consider how we build a workforce that reflects the audiences we aim to reach.

Culture – is the little things we do every day. It’s the drive, passion, energy that comes from our leadership and resonates throughout. The fun, humour and personal relationships that come from working closely together. And the celebrations – big and small – where we value each other and the opportunity to work in such a dynamic, exciting and challenging industry.

We love to win awards, however for Herd MSL our sense of achievement lies in what it took for us to get there — great work, outstanding communication and creative and passionate people with a dedication to learning.